The Righteous Player(s)

"...It turned out to be like this."

After listening to Annan's report, Grand Duke Ivan sighed deeply.

His mood was a bit complicated, and his right hand holding the scepter tightened slightly.

"Anya..."

Ivan whispered someone's name.

There were extremely complicated feelings in his eyes.

sad? Miss? calm? Open-minded?

Or neither.

Even Annan could not understand the extremely complex emotions.

That is the look that you can only have when you spend most of your life, half of your body is buried in loess.

Just staring at those eyes can quiet others unconsciously.

"Are you sad, father?"

Annan couldn't help asking.

Although this whole thing didn't have any responsibility for Ivan...it was just a tragedy caused by Lily's clumsiness at first.

But Anya, after all, was to find extraordinary wisdom, to find a way to marry Ivan, and to change Lin Dong to perform that kind of ritual, and Lily would have trouble because of this.

After all, Ivan Rindong is old.

It is not surprising that old people are full of regret when they recall the past.

Rather, because Ivan has had a lot of successes in his life, those failures will be more unforgettable...

Like his two wives.

"Nolan Gerant..."

Ivan was silent for a long time, whispering the old crow's name.

"what?"

"If you see him again, remember to thank him for me."

Ivan said slowly: "Anya also told me... I hope that one day, I can see the winter and the harvest with my own eyes. She wants to see blooming flowers, even if it's just a small one.

"...But I can't fulfill such a simple wish for her. I'm not as good as Nolan. He made Lily very happy."

"But you are a good grand prince."

"I am."

Ivan replied calmly: "But I can't be considered a good husband."

When he said this, he took a deep look at Annan:

"...Not a good father either."

"That's not enough."

Annan shrugged: "At least you are definitely not a bad father."

Grand Duke Ivan treats his children in a purely stocking state without any management and restraint at all.

It can be seen from the copy of Wolf Kiss that when Annan was very young, he was brought up by his elder brother Dmitry. Except for the hands of Winter who took care of his life, his elder brothers and sisters were basically with him.

Only when Annan was learning Frost Sword Art was taught by the Grand Duke himself.

When Annan just woke up from the frozen water port, the oil of silence had not leaked out... So the memory of Annan's past was only temporarily sealed, and not completely lost.

At that time, the first thing Annan remembered was that Ivan was teaching himself Frost Sword. It can also be seen that the "common memories" between Annan and Ivan are probably extremely rare.

Given how busy Ivan is at work, I am afraid that Annan will not see him several times a year.

At that time, Ivan's body was okay, unlike the need to lie in bed all year round now. He must have been running around...roughly he should have passed the house three times and never entered that level.

At least he could let the brothers Annan and Dmitri, and Xiong call the rotten man to take a gamble at home, without realizing that his cub had something wrong.

After all, Ivan is the best Duke of all dynasties in Winter.

This is what all Winter's people will admit from the heart.

There is no winter generation that can handle the affairs of the winter year better than Ivan. At least after the death of his first wife...or maybe even before that, Ivan had dedicated his entire life to the Principality of Winter.

It is normal to ignore one's own family.

After all, his time is not unlimited.

Of course, what Annan said is light...After all, in a strict sense, this is not his childhood. When he arrived in this world, there was already an adult soul in his body.

And today Annan has completely forgotten the things of his childhood. It can be said that standing and talking can't hurt your back—at least Dmitry and Maria will definitely be affected a lot by this.

At least their childhood will not be so happy.

However, they still have mothers who are relatively normal. Especially Dmitry... his mother seemed to be a very gentle person. It can even melt Ivan this piece of ice.

…Perhaps, part of the reason Dmitri and Maria have always cared and loved Annan is because Anya passed away soon after Annan was born.

Grand Duke Ivan was busy with government affairs again, and had no time to bring children. So the two brothers and sisters volunteered to take care of Annan.

The so-called eldest brother is like a father, and the eldest sister is like a mother.

…But I am afraid that people are better than people.

Compared with the Melvin family's style of simply using heirs as tools, the Rin Dong family's style is already good and can't be better.

"However, although Lily has had a good time with Noah...but it's better to talk to Rasputin."

Ivan gave a light cough.

He raised his right hand, which was so thin that he could faintly see the bone shape, and handed Annan a hard card that looked like a greeting card or business card.

After Annan handed it, he squeezed it lightly with his hands-and found that a thin piece of metal was sandwiched between the thick paper.

And it says an address and a name.

"Vasika Rasputin... will you see him tomorrow?"

"He is the cousin of Anya and Lily...or cousin. He is also the patriarch of this generation of Rasputin. You can call him aunt or uncle."

"...What do you mean?"

Annan was a little confused.

Is this person a man or a woman?

"Rasputin is a secret keeper, so naturally there are many taboo rituals... Vasika has performed a special ritual to integrate himself with a female cat. So he will continue to change his gender according to the phases of the moon. And appearance characteristics."

Ivan glanced at the calendar copper plate on the wall: "Now Vasika should be female...may have some features of cats. After you see it, remember not to be afraid and not to be rude."

…I’m afraid of a hammer.

Annan thought from the bottom of his heart.

"...However, the frequency of taboo rituals performed by the people of Rasputin...isn't it too high?"

Annan couldn't help asking questions.

So far, Rasputin that he has heard seems to have held taboo rituals.

Ivan shook his head: "For Rasputin, this is normal-this is how the name Rasputin came from in the first place."

The old man slowly said: "In Shuangyu, the word'Rasputin' is usually used to describe a person's misbehavior... it is not a good word."

Besides, it's not a good word... Ivan's words are too tactful.

It's a word that can be used to insult a person's character that is covered by an asterisk when it is typed.

"...But why does Rasputin use this term as a surname?"

"This is called the'Inferior Name Ceremony'."

Ivan replied: "Their purpose is to let others insult themselves unconsciously. In this way, you can easily get a commonly used influence'Three Words of Cursing'. This influence needs to be sent by three different people within one day. Insults from the heart'. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com

"This is also the reason why some ritualists who have fallen into the dark will use cruel means to do evil everywhere and leave their names... They are deliberately collecting insults, curses and hatred. If these are condensed to a certain degree, they will also Become an influence.

"It will cause weak villains to fall into nightmares and die...but it will also strengthen the power of true villains."

Simply put, it's just looking for scolding.

Annan thought.

"And this influence is a common influence necessary for many taboo rituals and rituals to curse others. Rasputin is a very traditional family of ritualists. They have multiple influence pools... and their own name is naturally one of the influences. .

"So they used the'Inferior Name Ceremony' to replace their family name with this old abusive. Although there are very few people who understand Shuangyu, they can be regarded as'inner-hearted abuse by just reading the last name.' '.

"In addition to names, they will also participate in large-scale events such as festivals, funerals, weddings, etc., and the purpose is to collect as much influence as possible.

"Almost all of these influences will be used for rituals before they expire. Therefore, every Rasputin will perform at least one taboo ritual. They are more or less different from ordinary people. Although they are all It's a weird person, and it's acting weird...but when you succeed as Grand Duke of Winter, Rasputin will be your best partner."

Ivan stretched out his hand and patted his tricolor scepter, and said meaningfully, "Because they always need Winter's help.

"Remember this sentence. I can't tell you too much for the time being... But remember, in tomorrow's communication with Patriarch Vasika, don't be bluffed by him.

"—You are the one who takes the initiative. It is the absolute initiative."